CNN's Kate Bolduan fact-checked Donald Trump's Friday morning rant outside the courtroom as he returns for Day Four of his criminal trial.
The quadruple-indicted ex-president complained Friday morning about a gag order imposed on him by New York justice Juan Merchan that prohibits him from commenting publicly on witnesses and jurors in the case, and prosecutors argued that Trump has already violated that court order seven times since the start of the trial.
"The gag order has to come off, people are allowed to speak about me and I have a gag order, just to show how much more unfair it is, and the conflict has to end with the judge," Trump told reporters. "The judge has a conflict, the worst I've ever seen, and it has to end with the judge."
The former president touted 32 printed-out articles and opinion columns he waved around outside the courtroom Thursday that show various conservative commentators agreeing with his views on the case, and he claimed the judge's order had limited his right to free speech.
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"I have to be released from the gag order," Trump said. "They have taken away my constitutional right to speak, and that includes speaking to you. I have a lot to say to you and I’m not allowed to say it."
Bolduan responded to the former president's claims immediately after the network cut away from his courthouse rant.
"He says he should be allowed to speak – he is allowed to speak," Bolduan said. "There are three categories of speech that forbid Trump to speak about – speaking publicly or directly about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses in the case, that he's not allowed to speak specifically concerning their potential participation in the case. Then another one is speaking publicly or directly about prosecutors other than [Manhattan district attorney Alvin] Bragg in the case, about staff members of Bragg's office in the court and about family members of prosecutors' staffers or the court, and talking directly about the jurors and prospective jurors in the case."
"He can attack Bragg all he wants," Bolduan added. "He can defend himself all he wants, he can say that he thinks the case is unfair all he wants, he can talk about what he calls a conflicted judge, though we can fact check that, all he wants. These are the three categories that are part of our the gag order, and he's got a lot of leeway outside of it."
CNN's John Berman summed up her fact check, noting that the gag order covered only jurors, witnesses and family members of those involved in the case, and added another caveat.
"He continues to say this is a prosecution from the White House," Berman said. "That is not true at all. This is a New York State case, full stop."
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